NQ Minerals to restart exploration at Hellyer

NQ Minerals PLC (AQSE:NQMI)(OTCQB:NQMLF) is to restart exploration at its highly prospective Hellyer project in the Mt Read volcanic belt, a geological terrain in north west Tasmania renowned for large scale and high-grade polymetallic deposits.

NQ is currently producing lead and zinc concentrates (with significant gold and silver credits) by reclaiming the Hellyer mine tailings generated from the former mining operations and processing them through the Hellyer concentrator plant at the rate of over 1.2 million tonnes per annum.

Since acquiring the exclusive rights to the underground resources at Hellyer from Bass Metals Ltd in January, NQ has been working on a high-quality data set acquired from Bass. Work that ceased in early 2012 left several significant open targets at a time when Bass was at the cusp of gaining a greater understanding of the key ore-deposit indicators.

Earlier, Bass had discovered the Fossey deposit only 150 metres south of Hellyer, but in the footwall zone, below the classic ‘Hellyer ore position’, where the majority of exploration was targeted for the previous 30 years.

“There is now significant potential to define new and extensive high-grade mineralisation at Hellyer, one of the world’s great polymetallic high-grade mines,” NQ’s chairman David Lenigas said in a statement.

“We are operating in one of the mostly highly mineralised geological terrains in the world and we have a golden opportunity to continue Bass’s work from 2012 to build-up the existing significant underground resource inventory and extend the Hellyer mine life to underpin this operation for a very long time,” he added.

Story by ProactiveInvestors